Accolades to African-American women facultyNOBCChENOBCChE is proud to salute the powerful women who are helping to ensure the next generation of engineers through academic leadership. Thank you for blazing the trail!

Dr. Paula Hammond, MIT, received the Charles A. Stine Award from the AIChE Materials Engineering and Science Division. The Charles M.A. Stine Award is bestowed annually to a leading researcher in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of materials science and engineering.

Creating a diverse workforce requires strategic hiringBusinessNewsDailyWhile the overwhelming majority of executives feel diversity in the workplace improves a company's performance, only some are taking the steps needed to ensure it exists, new research shows.
A study by the Korn/Ferry Institute revealed that 96 percent of executives worldwide believe having a diverse and inclusive workforce can improve employee engagement and business performance.

The 4 most effective ways leaders solve problemsForbesWith as many problems as we are all faced with in our work and life, it seems as if there is never enough time to solve each one without dealing with some adversity along the way. Problems keep mounting so fast that we find ourselves taking short-cuts to temporarily alleviate the tension points — so we can move onto the next problem. In the process, we fail to solve the core of each problem we are dealt; thus we continuously get caught in the trap of a never-ending cycle that makes it difficult to find any real resolutions. Sound familiar?

Maine high school promotes STEM educationThe ForecasterThe transparent gelatinous alginate strands South Portland High School junior Jackeline Zarate and Portland High School junior Bailey Ruesch pulled from a test tube recently at Fairchild Semiconductor were nanotechnology at their fingertips. The students were participating in the three-day, first-ever Semi High Tech University in Maine. The intensive course merged fun, practical applications in science, technology, engineering and math with mock job interviews for students who are not always selected just because of outstanding grades.

New college success strategies for a new normalThe Huffington PostTwo powerful trends are rapidly changing the composition of America's communities. The first is demographic. By 2050, no single ethnic group will be the majority population in the U.S., with non-Hispanic whites projected to account for 47 percent of the nation's population. The second trend is the rapid evolution of an economy seeing significant growth in high-skill sectors like healthcare and STEM industries. We must build on our country's unparalleled and growing diversity by increasing college success for everyone, including in low-income communities of color.

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8 tips for delivering difficult employee feedbackBy Liz Murphy Being in a leadership position can be rewarding, but it does require a lot of time and dedication to your people. In fact, one of the biggest responsibilities of a leader is identifying and correcting performance issues. Because an employee's performance can be a sensitive matter, here are eight tips to help you deliver difficult feedback in a way that produces positive results.

Opinion: Buffalo, N.Y., can lead the way on STEM educationThe Buffalo NewsGov. Andrew M. Cuomo's support for turning the Buffalo Niagara region into a hub for nanotechnology is expected to bring more job opportunities into the region. However, the issue of educating qualified individuals for these high-tech jobs remains mostly unanswered.
Many stories document the need for the United States to maintain a leadership position in STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math. Yet, recent stories continue to point out how we lag behind other nations in educating young people in the STEM fields.

The 13 do's and don'ts of job searching while you're still employedForbesReady for a new job? Most career experts would tell you to start looking while you're still employed. But when you do — you must tread carefully.
"When you're working, your professional network is working for you because you're constantly interacting with your industry contacts," says Andy Teach, a corporate veteran and author of "From Graduation to Corporation: The Practical Guide to Climbing the Corporate Ladder One Rung at a Time."

STEM: In academia there is a glut, but shortage in the corporate worldScience 2.0One argument for putting a halt to government spending billions of dollars doing STEM "outreach" is that, like all government programs, they become self-serving and never, ever stop.
After $5 billion of taxpayer-funded STEM outreach in the last decade, there is a real glut of Ph.D.s — America produces 6 times as many Ph.D.s as there are jobs in academia, so income for post-doctoral jobs has plummeted.